Experience of being an ICT technician.. assistant!

I'm not an IT person and I used to think I was a computer idiot because I didn't start having my first computer (actually half of it only, as I shared it with my elder brother) till after I graduated from my undergraduate degree at CUHK. Even when I had our first computer at home in HK, I still didn't have much idea about how computers work because at that time I used it mostly for accessing the internet and typing some documents. My two elder brothers were much better at computers since the eldest one was an IT graduate while my second elder brother was interested in working on the 'internal' of the computer - quite often I came home and found the computer had been formatted, or he had installed some new programs that were unknown to me! Or he might even change the parts of the computer (e.g. new hard drive or ram). I got more knowledge about computers when I got my first laptop (before I came to the UK for my phd) and it's become part of my treasure. Still if you ask me anything technical, I don't think I know the answer. But I sometimes do get curious about computers/internet, and I'm lucky to know someone who's got very good knowledge of computers/internet/technical stuff.

Today I got a chance to experience what being an IT technician - actually, to be more precise, 'assistant', which I'll explain in a moment. An elderly 'pak pak' (伯伯) asked me to help him find out why he couldn't get internet connection. I thought I'd stay there for half an hour and then could go home to have my home-made lunch. It turned out that I stayed there for more than 7 hours! He and his 'close friend' cooked me nice lunch - rice with 'choi sum', tofu, steamed egg & luncheon meat (oh, my favourite!). The problem of internet connection was not difficult to be sorted out. It took me no more than 5 minutes. What took me most of the time was the overall problems of his computer - he complained his computer had been running too slow.. with tremendous telephone support from my 'supervisor', I successfully removed some of the viruses in the computer (oh scanning the computer for virus took more than two hours!), upgraded those internet browsers, organized some of the files, etc. It was really tiring and occasionally boring - when I had to wait for the virus scanner to complete the scan. I can understand and feel how tiring and frustrating sometimes it is for an IT technician to sort out those computer problems. When I first had a look at the computer, I felt headache - partly becoz the programmes were in simplified Chinese; partly becoz the computer was like a chaos to me. I really felt like deleting all the files/programs! Maybe that's how some people would do in such a situation.

The computer initially belonged to someone who has 'hurt' me. But he gave it to 'pak pak' later as a gift. Didn't feel much though when I looked at the computer, which looked to me a bit too old...

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I took this opportunity to have a look at pak pak's house as I may have to move into it in the summer if I can't manage to find a new flatmate - this morning I did try to send messages/email to some of the people I know, though I don't expect much... Pak pak's house is not bad. Its quiet indeed and living with him is not bad. But I just don't like houses - especially old ones...